Chapter I: Front Matter

THE
COAT WITHOUT A SEAM
_And Other Poems_

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

A CHANT OF LOVE FOR ENGLAND AND OTHER POEMS

A volume of miscellaneous poems containing as its title poem a reply to the German “Hymn of Hate.”

“Firmly and finely fashioned, and unaffectedly sincere.”--_The New York Times._

“Miss Cone’s verse shows a delicacy of imagination which is deserving of high praise.”--_The Outlook._

_$1.50 net_

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE

THE
COAT WITHOUT A SEAM
_And Other Poems_

BY
HELEN GRAY CONE
AUTHOR OF “A CHANT OF LOVE FOR ENGLAND,
AND OTHER POEMS”

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE

COPYRIGHT 1919, BY
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

_All Rights Reserved_

_Printed in the United States of America_

Grateful acknowledgment is made, for permission to reprint some of the poems in this book, to Scribner’s Magazine, The Outlook, The Sonnet, The New York Evening Post, The New York Times, The Boston Evening Transcript, and The Association Monthly.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE COAT WITHOUT A SEAM 1

SONNETS OF THE GREAT PEACE 9

MOODS OF WAR:

THE SWORD 21

ALIGNED 23

EARTH-BROWN ARMIES 26

THE IMPERATIVE 27

WAR-SACRIFICE 29

THE YOUTH AND WAR 31

MOTHERS OF SOLDIERS 33

A REPRISAL 35

ON THE DEATH OF AN UNTRIED SOLDIER 39

THE AIRMAN 41

TO FRANCIS LEDWIDGE 42

THE WAY OF THE WHITE SOULS 44

RESPITE 47

HAPPY COUNTRY 49

TO FRANCE 51

TO BELGIUM 53

THE CREED OF AN AMERICAN 55

THE ULTIMATE VICTORY 58

ROOSEVELT, 1919 60

THE QUIET DAYS:

OLD BURYING HILL 65

HEARTBREAK ROAD 66

ROMANCE 67

FAITH 69

INTIMATIONS 70

ON THE SINGING OF “GAUDEAMUS IGITUR” 72

THE COUNTERSIGN 74

FAILURE TRIUMPHANT 75

THE SPARK 77

FOXGLOVES 79

THE CHRISTMAS BAGPIPES 80

WHEN ROSES GO DOWN TO THE SEA 82

RITUAL FOR SUMMER DEAD 85

RED OCTOBER 87

THE SINGER CHOOSES THE SONGS OF THE WIND 89

THE GLEAM TRAVELS 91

THE GRAY VICTORY 93

FLAGS AND THE SKY 96

THE COAT WITHOUT A
SEAM

THE COAT WITHOUT A SEAM

There was a web, ere Time began,
Woven on the loom of God,
Woven for the need of Man.
Through the web two colors ran,
Blue that is the sky of God,
Red that is the blood of Man.
The web was woven, the web was one:
The stars sang when the work was done.

God had willed it to be worn--
Fit garment for the heavenly feast--
By Man, that was to be His son.
Only God could dream that dream!
When Time began, and Man was born,
He clothed himself in the skin of the beast,
And under it beat the heart of the beast.
Not till Man be born God’s son
Shall he wear the Coat without a Seam!

(Ah, the dream, the wondrous dream
Of a World without a Seam,
Man being one, as God is one,
Brother’s brother and Father’s son,
All earth, all Heaven, without a seam!)

The Roman strode through field and flood,
Blind as Fate with battle-blood;
Victory glittered in his hand;
And when he laid him down at night
Under the stars of some strange land,
Weary of the march or fight,
He wrapped his heart in the vast dream
Of a World without a Seam;
Yet the dream was not divine;
The fierce heart beat like marching feet:
“The World is one--the World is mine!”
That was the dream of states foregone,
Of Babylon, of Macedon;
Sleeked by whatsoever art,
It is the dream of the beast’s heart.
Massive-treading Rome paced on
(As Macedon, as Babylon,)
Into the dusk of states foregone:
She left her mantle still astream
Along the wind, her purple dream--
Not the Coat without a Seam!
The eyes of emperors see it float,
They hail it for the sacred Coat:
Men follow on through field and flood,
Blind as Fate with battle-blood.
See the sworded sceptred train,
Out of the dusk they all advance:
Iron-crownéd Charlemagne,
Barbarossa flaming past,
Sombre majesties of Spain,
Pomps of old monarchic France--
Supreme Napoleon last,
Sweeping his ermine-bordered robe
And gripping fast the globe.
(Nay, who is this that follows him,
A vision helmeted and grim,
A countenance pallid and aghast?)
--Into the dusk they all are gone,
As Babylon, as Macedon.
Not till Man shall dream God’s dream
Shall he wear the Coat without a Seam!

(Ah, the dream, the wondrous dream
Of a World without a Seam!
Man being one, as God is one,
Brother’s brother and Father’s son,
All earth, all Heaven without a seam!)

“What shall we do, we simple folk
Who walk as cattle in the yoke?
Surely the vision of this Coat--
Fit garment for the heavenly feast--
Is for prophet and for priest,
Not for men of little note!
Surely the quest to find this Coat--
Woven of empyrean thread
Heaven-blue and heart-red--
This is for Kings and Chancellors,
Parliaments and Emperors,
Not for men of little note!”
--Nay, this do ye every one:
All your days to dream God’s dream,
That Man, who is to be His son,
Shall wear the Coat without a Seam!

SONNETS OF THE GREAT PEACE

“Incertainties now crown themselves assured
And peace proclaims olives of endless age.”

--SHAKESPEARE’S _Sonnet CVII_.